1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airport display device.
2. Discussion of the Background
The complexity of certain airports, the increase in air traffic and the existence of installations that are often poorly adapted to aircraft that are increasingly large and numerous create traffic difficulties on the runways and taxiways of airports, which often give rise to lengthening of the taxiing times, and sometimes to more or less serious incidents and, unfortunately, also to accidents.
In this context, an increasingly high number of “runway incursions” is observed, that is to say situations in which an unauthorized aircraft (or another moving object such as a technical vehicle of the ground support personnel, for example) moves onto a runway which is being used at the same time in a regular manner by another aircraft in order to land or take off. Such a runway incursion is very dangerous, since it puts the lives of the occupants of both aircraft in danger.
For safety reasons, it is therefore important, or even imperative, that each pilot can observe the environment around his aircraft in the most efficient way possible.
Through the document EP-0 980 828, a system is known which is installed on an aircraft in order to assist the pilot of the aircraft during ground maneuvers. For this purpose this system includes a first video camera that generates video images of the forward landing gear and of an area around the latter, a second video camera which generates video images of the main landing gears and of the areas around the latter, and display means that are fitted in the piloting position and which display the video images generated by the first and second video cameras (which are fixed to the fuselage).
This known system therefore provides the pilot with information that enables him to make maneuvers during a taxiing operation with increased safety. In particular, by observation of the landing gears and of the areas around the latter, he can prevent a landing gear from striking an obstacle on the ground or which does not leave the runway or taxiway on which the aircraft is moving.
However, this known system does not provide any information on the whole (or at least on an extended area) of the runway or of the taxiway. Now, such a lack of information can be dangerous, particularly in poor visibility (fog, etc). In fact, another moving object, in particular another aircraft, can be on the same runway (or the same taxiway) at the same time and, due to lack of information, a situation can arise in which a collision cannot be avoided, in particular if the other moving object is moving at very high speed such as occurs during the take off or landing of an aircraft for example.
The system described in the document EP-0 980 828 also has other disadvantages, in particular the fact that the angles of view are not optimal. The result of this is that the perspective views displayed by this known system has blind spots, for example under the wings where the main landing gear of the aircraft is not seen (the position of the latter only being symbolized) and neither is the possible border of the taxiway or of the runway.
Furthermore, a display system making it possible to partially overcome the above disadvantages is known from an article by Beskenis, Green, Hyer and Johnson entitled “Integrated Display System for Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations” which appeared in the publication “NASA Langley Technical Report,” July 1998, NASA/CR-1998-208446. This display system includes, in particular, display means making it possible to exhibit on a screen mounted in the piloting position of the aircraft a map of the airport showing the runways, the taxiways and the various buildings, as well as the position of the aircraft and the traffic existing on that airport. This known system furthermore includes an actuating means allowing the pilot to choose between an overall view of the airport in planview and various perspective views of a part of the airport, which have various different degrees of zoom (that is to say different scales).
Even though it thus presents the pilot with a view of the airport with the corresponding traffic, which allows the pilot to form an idea of the real situation, this known system has several disadvantages. In particular, it is a frozen system and is not adaptable to different airports. Furthermore, the presentation of data used by this system is not very legible.
In fact, with this known system, the various displays offered are always the same no matter which airport is being used. Now, airports can of course be of very different sizes, of variable complexities and can include buildings in different quantities and sizes. Consequently, a presentation of information that is adapted to a particular type of airport (small size and few runways and buildings for example) is not generally adapted to another (very large and complex with numerous runways for example), and nothing in this known system makes it possible to take account of such different characteristics.
Furthermore, the presentation of information is not very legible, in particular because of the high number of elements (runways, taxiways, buildings, traffic, etc.) that is present on the display screen, particularly when the degree of zoom is low (a complete view of the airport for example). The legibility is also reduced by the use of different types of views: perspective views, plan views. Thus the pilot always needs a certain amount of time to understand the new display correctly when there is a change of type of view, this loss of time of course being a nuisance in certain situations.